'Duck Dynasty’ Matriarch Kay Robertson Shares How God Saved Her Marriage (EXCLUSIVE)
The Blind is a movie like no other. It’s hard to get through life’s challenges, particularly when a spouse is crumbling under a debilitating addiction, but then to see those moments replayed on a movie screen — well, that’s quite another story. Just ask Kay Robertson, the sweet-voiced matriarch of the Louisiana clan who became famous through their A&E reality show Duck Dynasty.
The tumultuous early years of her marriage to husband Phil Robertson are chronicled in The Blind. Now available on Blu-ray and DVD, the film was a box office success when it scored 4.3 million in ticket sales opening weekend in 1,700 theaters, reaching No. 4 at the box office in its first week with a 99% Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score.
It has become the highest grossing film in Fathom Events history.
“I had always said that we should have a movie. I’ve said that for years and years back when we weren’t even as popular as we are now,” Kay told Woman’s World.
But she admits that reliving the tough years when Phil was an abusive alcoholic was difficult. “It was hard to relive the bad part, but I knew we had to do that to get to the good part. So that’s what I kept telling Phil. He kept saying he was embarrassed, and I said, ‘Well number 1, you did it, so you’ve got to own it — but number 2, people will not learn from it unless they see all the bad and then the good.”
Facing the past was difficult for the Robertson family
Their son Jase Robertson also admits watching The Blind movie brought up a lot of old memories that were difficult to revisit. “At first when they asked me to help promote it, I said, ‘Well, I want to watch it before it came out,’ and so we watched it together,” Jase tells Woman's World. “I was a basket case because it brought up all the memories that I kind of tucked away as a kid because it was terrible when I was a kid. I was scared of my dad. He was mean.”
“He was going out on me and living that sinful life,” Kay says. “Reliving that was hard.”
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Ultimately, Phil stopped drinking and dedicated his life to God and his family. He had kicked Kay and their sons out of the house during a drunken rage, but ultimately, the couple reconciled when, with the help of a fearless local pastor, Phil turned his life around.
“I saw God transform a guy who was the very worst into one of the very best,” Jase says of his father. “I’m thankful for that and I think they did a really good job of capturing the essence of that. For anybody out there that thinks that there is a pit that they can fall into that’s too deep and they can’t come out, they should watch this movie because it shows God’s grace.”
Kay Robertson and the real-life story behind The Blind
The Blind chronicles Phil and Kay’s story, starting with their childhoods in North Louisiana and focusing on how they fell in love and married young. Phil was a gifted athlete and earned a scholarship to Louisiana Tech University where he was the starting quarterback ahead of Terry Bradshaw, who would go on to become a Pro Football Hall of Famer and well known sportscaster. Phil earned a masters degree in education and taught school before turning his passion for hunting into a successful business.
The family made their fortune by Phil designing and manufacturing a duck call that was so effective it became a must-have piece of equipment for hunters around the world. The antics of the Robertson family, including sons Willie, Jeb and Jase, along with their employees, fuel the hit TV series on A&E and earned the bearded clan a devoted following as one of reality TV’s most watched shows.
But the movie centers around the difficult years that Phil battled alcoholism and the heartbreak and turmoil the family went through until God worked his way into Phil's heart.
A talented cast brings the Robertson family’s story to life in The Blind. Amelia Eve plays Kay. Aron von Adrian portrays Phil and Aaron Dalla Villa is affable Uncle Si. “We were happy with them,” Kay says of the cast and of director Andrew Hyatt. “I believe [Amelia] was the closest thing to me there is. I was so shocked. She sounds and looks like me, just like me! So that was weird when I watched it. It was like really watching yourself. We were sitting in the audience watching it and they were filming me crying all the way through it. I didn’t realize I did it but I did.”
Getty/Andy Kropa
Kay Robertson shares words of wisdom
Kay Robertson knows some fans of the humorous, heart-filled show may be surprised by what they see in The Blind, but she thinks sharing their life story through this movie will bring others hope.
“What we wanted all along is people that didn’t know Jesus would come to know Him through the movie or want to know Him,” Kay says. “And for people who think their marriages are over, we hope to show them what can happen. We’ve had so many people that said after we saw your show, we went to marriage counseling and now our marriage is making it. Both of those reasons are the reasons we made it.”
Getty/D Dipasupil
When asked what advice she has for women whose marriage has hit a rough spot, Kay says, “I tell them to pray and pray and pray and also to know that God made our marriages to last forever, so He doesn’t want it to end. We have to work and fight for our marriage. That was my favorite words in the movie: ‘Fight for your marriage!’
Kay continues, "I know there are some that cannot be reconciled. I understand that, but so many leave over something that is not that big of a deal, something that could be worked out. You just need to ask for help. There are people who are willing to help you. We think, ‘I don’t want anybody to know,’ but the thing about it is if we don’t get help, we don’t get help. We’ve got to ask for it.”
Kay is hoping that by sharing their life story in The Blind people will feel inspired and encouraged by the movie that with God’s help they can leave behind addiction and rebuild a better life with their families.
“I always said that we had a story and a story to tell and that it would help people,” Kay Robertson smiles. “I believed that with all my heart so really I wasn’t surprised because I just thought well God just showed everybody else what I believed.”
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